1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns computer printing in general, and in particular concerns a system and method that enables uses to print out documents and the like on a printer through use of e-mail messages.
2. Background Information
Typically, in order to print out a document, it is necessary for an originating device, such as a personal computer (PC), laptop computer, personal digital assistant (PDA), pocket PC, etc., to have a printer device driver loaded prior to being able to print. The printer device driver provides an abstracted interface between the operating system (OS) and a specific printer to enable the operating system (and applications running on the OS) to communicate with any printer supported by the OS using a common set of text, graphic, and layout commands. This enables developers to develop applications without having to be concerned (generally) with the specific operations of the various printers that may be used with the application. These specific operations are handled by the OS in combination with the printer device drivers.
In today's mobile business environments, business people often encounter situations in which they are away from their home office, yet need to be able to print out documents at either a nearby printer or a selected printer proximate to a business contact they wish to provide one or more documents to. Generally, in order to print to either printer, two things need to happen. First, a mobile computing device on which the document files are stored (or through which they may be accessed) must be linked in communication with the destination printer. This may typically be performed by connecting to a network to by which the printer may be accessed, or by directly connecting to the printer via a printer cable (e.g., serial, parallel, or USB cable). In many cases, both of these connection solutions may be impractical or unavailable. For instance, many business printers are designed to be connected to a network and administrators do not want their network connection disrupted by connecting the printer to the originating mobile computing device via a printer cable. Furthermore, the network to which the printer is connected may be a private network that the administrator will not allow “foreign” computers to be connected to.
The second half of the foregoing problem pertains to the printer device driver. As discussed above, in order for the mobile computing device to be able to print via a printer, an appropriate printer device driver must be loaded on mobile computing device. In general, a specific device driver will be required for each unique type of printer (even unique models within a similar line of printers). These drivers take time to load, occupy stored space, and may cause software conflicts with other applications on the mobile computing device. Additionally, the business person may not have access to the needed driver. In some instances, a suitable printer driver may be available via the media from which the OS was originally installed, which people generally don't carry with them when away from the office. Oftentimes, the printer will comprise a model that was made available after the OS was released, whereby the only way to load the appropriate driver is to have a specific device driver that was provided with the printer. Short of being able to download the specific driver via the Internet, the business person will simply be out of luck, having no way to print via the destination printer.